An American in Cornwall
by The Magician's Niece
Summary: A one-shot I wrote for my friend Rachel @watchers3 on Twitter and thedarkstars on Tumblr about Adam Young aka. Mr. Owl City. Hope you enjoy it!


They parked the car and walked towards the sound of the sea. Adam had filled her car with petrol and they'd driven down to Cornwall, with him grumbling the whole journey because he couldn't drive. Apparently it was all wrong that she had to drive because it was meant to be his treat but he didn't have a licence in Britain and even if he did, he'd have difficulty with driving on the left-hand side of the road. The car park was sheltered from the ocean by a grassy mound, and once they were over that, they walked down the sloping cliff towards the water. The waves tossed and turned a couple of hundred meters below them and from here they could see all the little coves and beaches along that stretch of the Cornish coast line. They walked and talked about nothing in particular with their fingers intertwined and their shoulders occasionally bumping together, looking out over the view of the Atlantic Ocean.

All of a sudden, Adam stopped walking and started staring hard at the ground, looking everywhere except at her.

"Adam? What is it?" she tried to catch his eye but he wasn't having any of it.

"Um, look… we need to, um, we need to talk" his head now whipped up and those brown eyes were staring deep into her soul as they had done so many times before. But he wanted to talk and that couldn't be a step in the positive direction. She knew what she had with him was too good to be true; it was what hundreds of girls could only dream about, and here she was with Adam all to herself. She was Adam Young's girlfriend.

As he led her over to a nearby bench, she could feel her heart dropping. She knew what was coming; he was going to end it all and there was nothing she could do about it. She had been living a dream these past two years and now it was over. Adam started pacing up and down the dirt path which ran in front of the bench, and by the time he'd sat down and stopped fidgeting, she was almost laughing out loud at herself. How could she have been so stupid as to think Adam would want to be with her forever? He was Adam Young after all, why would such a perfect human being who could take his pick from multitudes of girls choose her? There was an age difference of almost ten years between them and occasionally she got the feeling she was too immature for him, although he always denied it when she brought it up. Maybe he'd decided he was wrong before and he couldn't handle it any more.

She thought back to when she'd first met him, outside a concert venue in the freezing cold. It was August but it had been raining all day and the water had left a damp chill in the air. She'd handed him a scrapbook full of letters, drawings and even poems from fans all over the world and he'd thanked her profusely, looking down at her with that adoring grin she'd grown to know so well. Their second meeting had been very different. She was getting ready for one of his shows in the evening; dancing around to his music and wishing the hands of the clock would move faster, when she peeped out of the window and saw a familiar figure leant against the lamppost at the front of her house in the pouring rain. She'd sidled up to him with an umbrella and asked if he would like a hot drink; he accepted readily. She only lived a couple of miles away from where he was playing that night and he had, in a desperate attempt to get away from everyone, hopped on a bus, jumped off at the first stop and walked until he was well and truly lost. They'd spent the rest of the afternoon with him teaching her songs on the keyboard and he only just managed to arrive back to the venue in time for the concert. After that, they'd met up for a few hours here and there whenever Adam was in England. She was certain he'd added more concert dates in Birmingham that he would have usually just because she lived there but she never brought it up in case he stopped. After a year and a half of getting to know each other, he had asked her to be his girlfriend and she was so surprised that she found she couldn't speak and instead flung her arms around his neck and refused to let go. He took that as a yes.

Now, here she was about to lose him. She didn't want him to start talking; she just wanted to stay in that moment forever, even if it meant pretending. She'd rather waste her life pretending than have to forget him for even a minute, but he was already opening his mouth, forming her name and taking her hand in his. The inevitable was happening and it was all she could do to stop herself from collapsing in a heap of shivering wreckage, so she barely listened to a word Adam said when he began explaining himself.

"Darling, I've been waiting a while to do this but it just hasn't felt right until now," he swallowed and grasped for the right words, "I don't think I can wait much longer; I promised myself I'd wait until you were nineteen, and I did. Even when we got there I couldn't bring myself to do it, I thought I should wait a while longer but now here we are an-"

"Adam, _what_?" she butted in, suddenly feeling furious; "you _waited_ for me to _grow up_ so you can bring me down to Cornwall and _break up with me_?"

"_What_?" he jumped up off the bench like someone had lit a fire underneath him, "you… you think I'm breaking up with you?"

It was all she could do to stare him down, but she was beginning to think she'd gone wrong somewhere. "You're… not breaking up with me?"

Adam threw his head back and laughed out loud, but upon seeing the cold looks she was throwing at him, he took her hand and led her across the grass top of the cliff to a few meters from the edge. Her hand was limp in his and she dragged her feet, not quite understanding what was going on. Adam didn't make sense to her at the best of times, let alone now. All of a sudden she realised just how beautiful the view was from that cliff top. The sun was setting in a cloudless sky, throwing pink and orange up and across the surface of the sea so it almost looked as if one could walk across a sunbeam from the shore line to the horizon. Adam took her in his arms and rested his cheek on the top of her head.

"It's gorgeous, isn't it?" he breathed into her hair for one perfect moment.

The next second, Adam was pushing her away and brushing a strand of loose hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. He held her by the shoulders.

"Stay there," he whispered, "I have something for you."

"I thought we were talking?" she pried in her last attempt to understand what was going on.

"Yeah well that didn't exactly work so we can talk afterwards. Just close your eyes."

She did as he bade, and as he watched her stand there, blind to the world and basking in the light of the tired sun, his heart was so overflowing with love for her that it was all he could do not to wrap his arms around her and never let go.

"You're so beautiful," He wondered as he stroked her cheek one last time before pulling the tiny parcel from his coat pocket, "now open them."

Her eyelids fluttered apart and Adam was gone.

"A-Adam?" she stammered, twisting her head this way and that, hoping against all hope that he hadn't gone far, that he hadn't left her.

A familiar voice came from behind her, "turn around."

She did and there, sure enough, was Adam Young on one knee, holding a tiny box containing a jewel which gleamed brightly in the fading sunlight, attached to a slim band of gold.

"Will you marry me?" he grinned just like she'd seen him do so often.

She dropped to her knees in front of him, not caring about the inevitable grass stains she now bore on her jeans.

"Oh, Adam it's beautiful," she almost couldn't speak, "I don't deserve this!"

"You do, you deserve so much more than this but I'm afraid this is the best I could come up with."

She just knelt there, unable to speak or move whilst he waited patiently for her answer.

"Made up your mind yet?" he probed after five minutes of silence.

"Made up my min-? Adam I made up my mind years ago!"

"Do I take that as a yes, or?" he quoted from her conversations with his fans on Twitter.

"I think you should" she looked at him from out the corner of her eye and smiled.

"Yes? Yes you'll marry me?"

"Of course I'll marry you!" she exclaimed as Adam swung her up from the ground and hugged her so tightly that she wasn't sure if she was breathing any more or not. He popped the ring from its case and slid it onto her finger before picking her up again and for moments they were spinning, spinning until they collapsed in a heap on the floor and neither of them knew who was kissing who first but they were so happy that they didn't care. Soon, the sun disappeared behind the horizon and the temperature dropped rapidly. Adam helped his fiancée up and they both brushed bits of grass from their clothing. He had a twig stuck in his hair and they both laughed out loud as she took a photo to show him how ridiculous he looked.

"That's a good one for Tumblr" she teased before rushing back up the hill towards the car park with Adam in hot pursuit.

"I'm seriously going to get you!" he laughed, not meaning a word of it.

When he reached the car, she was already inside and erupted into fits of giggles as he tried to open the doors that she'd locked. Eventually she gave up, wanting to feel him beside her and let him into the warmth of the vehicle.

"You're going to be the death of me," he chuckled, and after warming up from the sea breeze on the cliff-top he kissed her on the cheek, then took the other side of her face in his hand so their eyes met, "I love you, Rachel Mason. I love you with all of my heart."

He kissed her forehead, and then gazed into her eyes again, "soon to be Rachel Young, eh?"

"Not yet," she said, touching the end of his nose with her fingertip, "not yet but soon."

Rachel moved onto Adam's lap, curled up and rested her head on his chest. "You seem too good," she sighed lovingly, "too good to be true."

"You're holding me stronge-e-e-e-er," he sang, "stronger than I'm used to."

They continued to sing Carly Rae Jepson at the top of their lungs and soon fell asleep in the car, not caring when they woke up at the crack of dawn, cramped and squashed between the seats and each other's limbs. They were together and that was all that mattered.


End file.
